Best Stories

India has become a power surplus nation, albeit with certain caveats. In its wake, it has changed the whole paradigm of generation sources, with solar and wind hogging the spotlight and coal being relegated a bit.

Recent initiatives have improved public awareness and attracted investors to the Waste to Energy (WtE) segment. And, having experienced a learning cycle of last two decades, India is at the cusp of major transformation in MSW processing.

We have already seen an increase in appetite for short term power from the utilities following the financial leeway brought about by the debt restructuring. Over the long term, sustained improvement in distribution operations as envisaged under UDAY, could bring significant improvement.

While the government has announced measures on coal side and RBI is trying to give more elbow room to banks and institutions which have lend money to these projects, real improvement will come up only when PPA bidding opportunities come up.

The humongous amounts of garbage generated in India can very well entitle the waste management sector to claim being an industry. A

Once at the forefront of power generation in India, today hydro power has fallen far behind. We take a look at what ails the sector and the possible solutions to restore its former glory.

The scheme aiming to turn around ailing power distribution companies (discoms) in the country, Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY), has been successful in ironing out some of the edges in their operation and show a direction for regaining their financial health.

Under UDAY, progress in participation in terms of signing of MoUs and implementation of the scheme with respect to debt take-over/ refinancing has been satisfactory so far. Nonetheless, ability to reduce aggregate technical & commercial (AT&C) loss in line with targets as well as adequate tariff hike by SERCs will be critical for distribution utilities which have weak financial position, going forward so as to ensure sustained financial turnaround.

The takeover of the financial liabilities of the power distribution companies (discoms) by the state governments has brought in huge benefits to the cost structure of the discoms.